Suspended Blatter And Platini Deny Wrongdoing

FIFA chief Sepp Blatter and UEFA boss Michel Platini insist they have done nothing wrong after they were provisionally suspended for 90 days by the organisation's ethics committee.

The move follows a criminal investigation by Swiss authorities that centres on allegations Blatter misused FIFA money by making a £1.3m payment to Platini, a FIFA presidential hopeful.

Blatter, who was due to stand down as president after an election to replace him next February, was interrogated last month by investigators who also spoke to Platini as a witness.

Blatter was also questioned about broadcasting contracts sold to former FIFA vice president Jack Warner in 2005 that were supposedly undervalued.

UEFA said Platini, who was a frontrunner to replace Blatter at FIFA, will not perform his official duties with the European football organisation following the suspension.

The governing body of world football has also banned its former vice president and presidential hopeful Chung Mong-joon for six years in a separate case, and its secretary general Jerome Valcke for 90 days.

The ethics committee said Chung was guilty of infringing several rules, including conduct, confidentiality and duty of disclosure following an investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. He was fined £67,000.

Speaking about Blatter's suspension, his lawyer, Richard Cullen, said the committee failed to follow procedure and based its decision on a "misunderstanding."

He said: "The attorney general in Switzerland ... opened an investigation but brought no charge against the president.

"In fact, the prosecutors will be obliged by law to dismiss the case if their investigation, barely two weeks old, does not establish sufficient evidence.

"President Blatter looks forward to the opportunity to present evidence that will demonstrate that he did not engage in any misconduct, criminal or otherwise."

Sky's sports correspondent Paul Kelso said: "The ethics committee is a body Blatter founded himself to try to prevent corruption allegations ever reaching his office. It now seems the committee may be showing him the door."

Platini said: "I reject all of the allegations that have been made against me, which are based on mere semblances and are astonishingly vague.

"Indeed, the wording of those allegations merely states that a breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics "seems to have been committed" and that a decision on the substance of the matter cannot be taken immediately."

He added: "Despite the farcical nature of these events, I refuse to believe that this is a political decision taken in haste in order to taint a lifelong devotee of the game or crush my candidacy for the FIFA presidency."

Platini is the FA's favoured candidate to replace Blatter as FIFA president in February - but FA chairman Greg Dyke confirmed this would change if FIFA's ethics committee found he behaved improperly

Issa Hayatou, the president of the Confederation of African Football, has assumed the office of FIFA president on an interim basis.

The International Olympic Committee has called for FIFA to be "open for a credible, external presidential candidate of high integrity".